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MSN Messenger Access To Be Restricted
linuxwrangler writes "According to Infoworld, Microsoft has announced that as of October 15 some third-party software and older versions of MSN Messenger will no longer be able to log in to their Instant Messaging service. Microsoft cited 'security issues', but declined to offer specifics. The company sent an email alert to Messenger users, but users reported thinking the message was a hoax or virus after receiving over a dozen copies of the email."
Does any one know witch version of msn jabber emulates?
I really really want to keep useing jabber for my IM stuff (its not like I have a whole heck of a lot of choice , but running msn in wine is not my idea of a fun time).
Oh, ya... this is microsoft we are talking about.. get people using it, then take control of it.
Good way to cut off *nix users too..
And yes i realize its their software, their network but i thought at one point they said it would remain open...
---- Booth was a patriot ----
Wouldn't have anything to do with this announcement would it?
They who would give up an essential liberty for temporary security, deserve neither liberty nor security
Exactly, and this is pretty ironic considering the complaining MS did when they tried to hook into AOL's servers. They would link the servers and AOL would close the hole, then MS would find another way around, and AOL would close that one, and so on...
Now they'll pretend that never happened and act like people trying to circumvent their protections are some kind of criminals.
if(!cool) exit(-1);
AOL didn't allow Trillian on their network for a long time, citing bandwidth and resource use from people who weren't looking at the integrated AIM ads or using the AOL service. AOL insisted that third-party clients use the vastly inferior TOC protocol to connect to the AIM network instead of letting third-party clients use their proprietary OSCAR protocol.
So what did the engineers at Trillian and GAIM do? They reverse-engineered the OSCAR protocol and Trillian and GAIM can now use the AIM network again.
If Microsoft locks down their network, I give it all of 3 days before Trillian and others can access it again. AOL tried and was unsuccessful. I doubt Microsoft will be able to stop this for long considering the negative publicity (and Trillian patch) that would result.
Simpli - Your source for San Jose dedicated servers and colocation!
Do we read this as: The upgrade is required because "we can't track the behavior of our Messenger users " with the older versions of the Messenger clients and third party clients, he said, declining to specify those issues.?
A similar action by talkcity.com about 4 years ago killed the activity in its chat rooms, wonder if Microsoft will let that happen or use strong arm techniques to keep the users!
There are two kinds of egotists: 1) Those who admit it 2) The rest of us
After circumventing the access control layer one of two things will take place:
Micro$oft will claim some sort of copyright on some of the data stored on their servers. This is not have to be the messages. It could be the compliation of the directory information of the user. By circumventing their access control you have gained access to a protected copyrighted work. DING DING DING DMCA VIOLATION DING DING DING
Since all communications must go through Micro$oft's (or their duly delegated agent's) servers, by circumventing the access control layer you have gained unauthorized access to a protected computer system. DING DING DING USA PATRIOT VIOLATION DING DING DING
Of course we all know why Micro$oft is really doing this:
Lock in - Keep users in your system and don't let them talk to other systems either by your own client or by some third party client.
Security through legality - This is one more piece of legal wrangling they can use to avoid any realy responsibility about any security concerns. Any security breach would require an exploit that the MSN client is not programmed to do. Thus any exploit would require writing a different client or modifing the MSN client. Either way this is an unauthorized client and the DMCA and the USA PATRIOT Act can be used.
Same too ya - Uhhh, AOL is doing it to MSN so MSN is doing it to AOL.
Gee, I guess I'll just use that analog, electro-mechanical, voice messaging system that the FCC won't let the baby bells completely destroy.
Ah, yes... I remember so fondly the pioneering days of Trillian, when I'd patch two, three times a day to maintain AIM connection. How excited I would get, coming back from classes and wondering if yet another release due to "flap error" was going to be necessary!
It made Trillian that much more exciting to use, all the more so because I loathed (and continue to loathe) AOL so much. Of course, I always had ICQ to fall back on. Then AOL bought them and drove them into the ground.
What we need is an open source, secure protocol for chatting, newly implemented for today's uses. I'm getting tired of chatting over AIM, just because it has something to do with AOL. Yahoo I don't like either, nor MSN, or ICQ for above mentioned reasons. And other chat programs with half-standards aren't at all what we need at all. There are more than enough able geeks out there, some solution shouldn't be too difficult to organize a consortium to address the situation. Mayhap I smell an Ask Slashdot in the future.
The less they have to worry about catering to others, or time spent on monitoring 'others' on their products or network is time they can spend in their deployment of the one product end user goal. We've seen a glimmer of that mindset when last week they announced that the reason for BSOD's was outside programing etc.... LI}But eventually changes like this that ostracize entire portions of computer users will eventually lead to the better development by those who subscribe to deviant technologies. So in the end this move could start off the stages needed as a catalyst for better development and increases onward and upward.
Let's keep in mind that patents are in place to keep lawyers employed and keep them litigating. -CatGrep
It looks to me that that may be what Microsoft is doing. They are not just disabling 3rd party software. They are disabling access with some old versions of their own software. If they start dissallowing access by software even when there are no known vulnerabilities in the software, that is when we should get mad.
Your comment made the assumption that this is for Microsoft's security. I believe that it is for user's security. Microsoft is not providing a worthwhile service to the user if their "service" is a public backdoor into the user's computer. Microsoft knows this and they are doing the right thing. They have evidence of ways to crack certain softaware that connects to their servers. They have the ability to close the door on the vulnerability and they are doing so.
As soon as Trillian fixes their bugs and opens a dialog with Microsoft assuring microsoft that the flaws have been fixed, Microsoft will open the service back up.
But then again, I'm probably not paranoid enough for slashdot today. ;-)
I can actually understand the Windows-only issue from their point of view; although I don't agree with it as a customer.
But I bet they're losing users to third-party clients in far greater numbers in the windows platform than anywhere else.
Linux users are already willing to go through some inconvenience to NOT use their OS OR their Office suite, areas over which they had a much tighter control in the market over the years. It's not like they hope to "bring them back" through Messenger.
I'm using Trillian right now on a Windows machine. Why? Not because I can't use Messenger, not because I have ethical issues about using Messenger, but because Messenger and its network (like RealPlayer) is a product that has gone from decent to inferior to catastrophic with each "upgrade".
Perhaps if the network did not kick me out sporadically, if their client didn't take that long to sign me in, or took up over twice the memory size of Trillian, or if I didn't constantly get spam through it, or if it didn't have authentication problems with my hotmail account (which Trillian doesn't have)...
Well, you get the idea. Perhaps if their client didn't suck that much I wouldn't mind using it.
I mean, I love having all my IM ids in the same client, and probably wouldn't want to live without it by now. But it's like tabbed browsing in Mozilla... it's a feature that solves a problem many people don't know they have.
What made me try Trillian was not my admittedly crowed taskbar, it was one too many popups from Messenger advertising porn.
If their products were merely competent, they wouldn't even have to match the 3rd party products feature by feature. Not until a mainstream IM client (IM or Yahoo) forces them to by including those features itself.
Freedom is the freedom to say 2+2=4, everything else follows...
What people fail to realize, is that IM is regionalized. In other words, each region adopts its own IM and sticks to it. I live in a small town in North Dakota. Early on, ICQ was the popular instant messager, but due to Windows' inclusion of MSN Messenger, MSN Messenger won over this market. Today, maybe 5% of the community uses ICQ/AIM. The same applies for much of the rural midwest. The cities are another issue entirely, where AIM comes into play. I don't know the numbers, but I'm guessing that AIM is the most popular IM in New York and LA, due to the large number of AOL subscribers. The problem here, while IM allowed millions to be able to communicate and share in a way that chat rooms failed to do (simplicity for one), is that this communication may draw boundries, with one city being 'incompatible' with another city just a few miles away. The bridge programs (such as Trillian) can help to take these borders down, but only if Microsoft and AOL don't mind.
The Political Programmer